DIY Henna Hair Dye

I need some advice from those of you who use henna! I used to dye my hair copper red with regular hair dye, then I switched to Lush henna when my hair started getting fried. But now my hair is growing in substantially at the roots, and my natural medium-dark brown isn’t really turning red with the henna. Does anyone have any advice on how to naturally lighten my hair so I’ll get a nice copper red with henna? I’m afraid to go back to bleaching my roots since I’ve heard bleaching over henna dyed hair can cause serious issues.

Henna unfortunately can’t lighten your medium brown hair , it can only add tones. If you had grey then henna would grab onto that and it would look like highlights but unfortunately it can’t lighten your dark hair. I’ve had some clients with hair disasters from trying to bleach out their henna hair- I’ve seen green, orange, purple hair from this, and then the hair wouldnt hold onto color after.

You can try natural lighters that work over time, such as apple cider vinegar or lemon juice. It is a good idea to dilute your lightener with water haha or you can dry out the hair. Vinegar certainly lightened my hair, and it sounds like our natural hair colours are similar. Good luck, bee!

theambereyed1 : Cool! I didn’t know about vinegar. I’ll have to try it since it worked for you. Thanks for the tip. I have this dream of having bright red hair…but I’m just too cheap to go to a salon consistently. Plus the one I did go to dried my hair out. Here’s hoping the vinegar works!

catmom17 : No problem. It’s worth researching as well, however, I like 50/50 apple cider vinegar to water, and store it in a squeeze bottle in the shower. You may need to adjust the ratio. Also while it might just be my hair type, my ends are always lightest, and the roots darkest even with the vinegar wash. You may a different lightener if you’re only trying to lighten a specific area. Or even something similar to “Sun In”, which is mostly a hydrogen peroxide spray.